


A Duet for One

by Sicarix



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Canon Non-Binary Character, Kinda Possession not really though, Modern Character in Thedas, Modern Girl in Thedas, Multi, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV First Person, Sharing a Body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 05:34:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17822855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sicarix/pseuds/Sicarix
Summary: “No, we are not an abomination, as of yet”“Do you want to find out why? Oh, and get me out of your head?”“Yes. Very much”“Good, me too. But it’ll have to wait for later. We have bigger problems right now”Rowan was definitely not expecting to be dropped in Thedas. They really did not expect to be in the body of Kos Adaar, Vashoth Mage. They really really did not expect Kos to still be inhabiting his body as well.





	A Duet for One

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya, thanks for checking out this fic! I wanted to explore the M.G.I.T trope, but with my modern character sharing a body with the Inquisitor. I have a lot planned for this story, but i haven't quite decided what ships to write, so lemme know what kinda pairings you think would be good for my Inquisi-combo :p 
> 
> Rowan is from New Zealand, is non-binary, uses they/them pronouns and is bisexual =)

It was such a normal day it was almost funny. I woke up to my alarm blaring, got ready in a hurry, cuddled my cats for way too long, kissed my girlfriend goodbye. My car was freezing when I finally slid into it, but it was nothing the janky heater wouldn’t fix. I hoped. Phone plugged in, music blaring, and finally I was on my way to work. Only… 20 minutes late. Ah well. At least my boss was chill, or at least usually too stoned to give a shit. I was just pondering if I could stop by a Starbucks and get some coffee, or if that would be pushing it a bit too much, when the red Sedan crashed through the median, ploughing right into the side of my shitty Honda.

The car tumbled. The world turned sideways, then upside down and I felt my seatbelt snap. My head rushed towards the steering wheel, and in the second before impact there was a flash of brilliant, sickly green.

 

One second I was almost certainly dead, the next, I was standing, upright and unharmed in an utterly alien landscape. I stumbled, more out of shock than anything else. My mind refused to make sense of it. Hazy green mist swirled around me, interrupted here and there by jagged spikes of what I could only assume was rock. I had never seen anything of it’s like in my life. Except, as I realised with dawning horror, I Had seen it before. In fact, I’d seen this exact landscape just last evening, when I started a new playthrough of Inquisition. I was in the Fade.

I slapped myself, to see if that would shock me out of this dream or hallucination, but no luck. The slap stung, my eyes watered and yet the Fade remained.

“Shit”

If I’d had time, perhaps I’d have sat down and had a good cry, taken a moment to panic, to try desperately to think of a way back to my world, to rationalise that I was in a coma due to the crash and this would all end soon enough. But my memories of exactly what lurked in the Fade spurred me on. I had to move, so I did, starting towards the large spire of rock jutting out of this area of the Fade. Getting to high ground seemed my best option.

Time was almost impossible to track in the Fade, so I don’t know how long I stumbled along, arms wrapped tightly around my middle, not pausing long enough to let myself think. I was far closer when I felt the Fade shift around me, like a ripple passing through water. My eyes were drawn to the figure silhouetted in white on the top of the spire, appearing between one blink and the next. My thoughts raced. That was unmistakably Justinia, or the spirit appearing as her, which meant the future Inquisitor was here, was about to fall out of a rift. If I could get up there in time, I could hitch a lift out of here! My body jolted in action, scrambling up the steep incline as fast as possible. I dimly felt tears streaming down my face, my arms and legs trembling from the effort. I was clearly on the wrong side of this dammed spire, as there were no easy steps up, but I kept going, powered by pure panic and need.

I crested the top of the spire, and saw the spirit leaning down, hands almost touching that of male Qunari, horns reminiscent of a ram curling around his ears, his young, lean face streaked with dirt. My heart dropped. They were going to leave without me, the portal would close, and I’d be stuck here for just long enough to become Nightmares dinner. Panic flared within me, and with a wordless cry I leapt, crashing into the Qunari just as his hand met the Spirits’, and for the second time that day my vision went black.

 

 

Those weren’t my hands. The fingers were too long, palms too large, fingernails too chipped and they definitely weren’t the pretty metallic blue shade of polish I’d put on them last night. I moved my left hand up to inspect it, and it made it about halfway to where I’d intended it to go before the movement abruptly halted. My body shifted, head turning and _I wasn’t the one moving it_. It was the single strangest sensation I’d ever experienced, feeling every part of my body but having no control over it, and that was saying something considering I’d just been physically in The Goddam Fade.

 _“What the fuck?”_ I tried to say it out loud, to make this foreign mouth form the words, but that same force halted me before I got a single syllable out. All I could do was yell it hopelessly inside my own head. I definitely wasn’t expecting anyone to respond.

 _“Yeah, I could ask you the same question”_ The other voice suddenly inside my head was male and rough, tinged with pain and I felt the body wince despite itself. My stomach dropped. There was only one person it could possibly be.  

“ _Are you Adaar?”_

_“The fuck kinda question is that? You’re the one in my head, demon”_

_“I’ll take that as a yes”_

The pieces were starting to come together in my head, and they painted a sorry picture. This was Adaar, the Inquisitor to be, and somehow instead of just hitching a lift with him out of the fade, my consciousness had entered his body. And he had decided that I was a demon. As frustrating as that promised to be, I couldn’t fault him for his logic. I was, after all, speaking in his head and partially hijacking his body, although he seemed to be getting a better handle at blocking me out. I tried to move his hand again as a test, and it only twitched slightly.

 _“Stop doing that”_ Adaar snarled, shaking his head as if to dislodge me from it. Unfortunately for us both, it didn’t seem to work.

_“Hey dude, I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on!”_

_“What’s going on? You’re trying to possess me, that’s what’s going on!”_

_“I’m not trying to possess you, you think I wanted this, to...to be locked in a gross, damp prison in a body that’s not mine with a mini fade rift key glued to my hand? No thanks”_

_“But you’re a demon, that’s what demons do”_

_“I.Am.Not.A.Demon. I am a person, with a name and a family and a body that is not this one, and I’m trying to figure out why I am not currently in that body. Besides, you didn’t consent to this. I mean, neither did I to be honest, but still. If I were a demon, we should be a horrific abomination right now. Are we?”_

Adaar took a deep breath, closed his eyes, blocking off both of our sight, and, I assume, thought very hard about what I’d just said. While I couldn’t hear his entire thought process, I could feel the effect they had on the body. He cycled through panic and anger, to cold dread, to a sort of calm resignation, as best I could tell. Meanwhile I busied myself with doing much the same, examining my feelings, and putting them to the side. I was in this position, as strange as it was, and I had to accept that, and make Adaar accept it too. Anything else meant death. We could figure out a solution to all of this once the Breach was closed. So, I put away my anger, my hope, my panic and fear and locked it firmly away in the later box.

The process took some time, but finally Adaar responded, voice unenthused, but with grudging acceptance.

_“No, we are not an abomination, as of yet”_

_“Do you want to find out why? Oh, and get me out of your head?”_

_“Yes. Very much”_

_“Good, me too. But it’ll have to wait for later. We have bigger problems right now”_

Right on time, the mark on our hand flared to life, crackling with sickly green energy. It felt like a combination of mild tearing pain and an electric shock, resonating all the way up our arm. Not pleasant, to say the least. I’d have laughed at its impeccable dramatic timing, if the situation weren’t so serious.

The door to the prison swung open, and in strode Cassandra and Leliana. The game had absolutely not done a sufficient job in portraying how pants-shittingly terrifying it was to have those two glaring at you with the promise of pain in their eyes. This Cassandra was intimidating, and I had a hard time reconciling her with the Cassandra I was used to, the Cassandra that groaned at Varrics shitty jokes and read trashy romance novels and was desperately loyal to those she loved. I resolved to refer to her as The Seeker for now, as it would also remind me exactly what she would do if she suspected we were possessed. And then there was Leliana, lurking in the back looking for all the world like a fox with the bird already in its jaws.

We were so fucked.

I saw Adaar take them in, and I could tell he felt the same apprehension as I did. Good. This was going to be so much harder than it should be for him. I felt a sudden surge of guilt.

_“We can’t let them think that we, I mean, you are possessed. They’ll kill us. Just, act normal and don’t mention me. I’ll try help you where I can”_

Adaar didn’t risk replying, even inside our head, but I felt him nod ever so slightly, the kind of movement you could only pick up if you were in my position. That is, inside his body. I suppressed the urge to groan. I was never going to get used to this. So caught up in the strangeness of our situation, I completely missed Cassandras first lines, but I felt Adaars reactions to them, the shock turned to loss at the news of the Conclaves destruction, and then fear at Cassandras accusation. The loss stuck out sharply, and I knew without having to verify that he had lost someone at the Conclave. My heart ached for him. Well, my metaphorical heart.

The rest of the conversation went much as I had seen it happen previously. I stayed silent, not wishing to throw Adaar off and risk alerting the Nightingale or the Seeker. He handled it fine on his own, going the confused route with little deviation. Cassandra got all up in our face, Leliana pulled her back, they argued and pried and meanwhile I tried to send calming vibes to Adaar. I couldn’t be sure if he felt them, he was very much focused on the conversation outside of our head, but it made me feel a bit less useless.  

And the Seeker was hauling us up and leading us up and out, out of the prison and into the bitingly cold air of Haven. It was another singularly weird experience, to walk without putting thought into the motions, and my and Adaars gaits were different enough for the rhythm of it to feel strange as well. It felt almost like being in a car, except the car was my body. I really hoped I didn’t get carsick. Or, Adaar-sick? I put the thought out of my mind and concentrated on getting used to the strange method of movement. If Adaar froze at some point, I might have to take over and run, and I really didn’t want to trip us up after two steps if such a thing did happen.

And then there it was. The Breach, clouds swirling ominously, energy crackling through the air. Adaar took a sharp gasp of air at the sight, and the cold burned our lungs.

“Fuck me” He whispered under his breath, eyes wide.

 _“I know, right?”_ Even in our head my voice sounded weak. Adaar did me the decency of holding back his surprised laugh, if only barely. The Seeker and Adaar continued with their conversation as it was scripted in the game, interrupted by a surge from the Breach, which did in fact hurt like a bitch. Fantastic. Adaar was stoic, not letting his pain bleed through into his words, although I did sense a great deal of hesitation. He asked all the questions I expected, and I had almost tuned out when he paused, as the Seeker waited for his verdict on if he would help seal the Breach.

 _“What do you think?”_ He asked me, voice deceptively calm for how I felt his emotions roiling.

 _“I think we have no other option, and if we do manage to close the Breach they will be far less likely to chop our head off”_ I replied, trying to be as reassuring as possible. I hoped my joking tone translated well with just words. Adaar seemed to get it, and he shook his head slightly, not bothering to hold back his wry smile, before meeting the Seekers eyes once again.

“I understand”

“Then?”

“I’ll do what I can. Whatever it takes”

A strange sense of pride swelled within me, and I sent as much of it as I could to Adaar through our shared mental bond, making clear I approved. I was pretty sure he got the picture, if the hesitant sense of amusement and relief answering was to be believed.

Then we were off, making our way through the crowds of out Haven. Adaar shrunk away from their accusing stares. I did what I could to reassure him, but there wasn’t much I could say in this situation. I settled on keeping my own emotions calm, and projecting that to him. This was home turf for me, both crowds and dirty looks, so by now I knew how best to block them out. I made sure we kept our head held high and let Adaar worry over the Seekers words of warning. Meanwhile, I was surveying the area. Haven was far larger than it had appeared in game, a proper town rather than the tiny collection of houses and the Temple. It was rather more impressive, and I couldn’t help the tiny surge of joy I felt at seeing it in person.

Once we were out of sight of the masses, Adaar relaxed somewhat, although he never let his guard down. He seemed to be in full mercenary mode, for which I was thankful. If his backstory from the game was the same as here, he would know his way around a battlefield. One less thing for me to worry about. The walk to the bridge was long, and gave us some relatively private time to talk.

_“it occurs to me that I don’t know what to call you, voice in my head”_

_“Anything but Demon”_

He grunted quietly.

_“Yes, I gathered that. You said you had a name?”_

_“It’s Rowan. What’s yours? I’ve just been calling you Adaar”_

_“You truly don’t know? I thought you were in my head”_

Ok, now I definitely wasn’t imagining the slightly teasing tone to his voice. I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, at least he felt comfortable enough with me to joke about it. On the other, the assumption I knew everything would get tiring real quick. Especially if I told him about what I knew of his future. I resolved to put the terrifying thought of all the consequences of that conversation firmly in the later box as well.

_“Do you know everything about me? Or can you just hear and feel what I send to you?”_

_“The second one”_

_“Ah. Same here. So no, I do not know everything about you”_

His relief was clear, from the way the body reacted. I understood why. It was a relief to know we still had some tiny semblance of privacy left, that some of our thoughts were still our own.

_“My name is Kos”_

_“I like that name”_

_“Thank you. I do too”_

_“Kos?”_

_“Yes, Rowan”_

_“Thank you for asking my name”_

I was sure that, were I in my own body, I would have burst into tears right then and there, as the gravity of the situation hit me. As it was, Kos only stumbled and his eyes welled up ever so slightly. He blinked them away, continuing on, and I thought he might ignore my moment of weakness. And then, ever so tentatively, I felt him send me the teensiest burst of acknowledgement. It was almost too much to bear, so I concentrated on keeping us forging on. We didn’t speak much after that.

 

So lost in thought, I almost didn’t recognise the bridge. Soldiers approached from the other side, and panic flared. I did not want to fall down that far, no matter how unharmed the Inquisitor always appeared afterwards. Without stopping to think, I wrenched control of the body away from Kos, halting us instantly. I threw out our hand, the one with the Anchor on it.

“Get off the bridge!” I yelled to both Cassandra and the soldiers as the Anchor flared. Kos wrested back control just as the projectile from the Breach impacted. The force was enough to throw both the Seeker and I off our balance, but I’d acted quick enough that we weren’t sent tumbling down with the bridge. The demons swelled up down the bottom, and with a war cry the Seeker charged them, sliding down the bank, and then with a burst of adrenaline we followed suit. The crate of weapons was as it had appeared in the game, although there seemed to be several options. Kos didn’t think twice before snatching up the battered staff, and I felt a thrill race down our spine. We were a Mage!

And then more panic. Because oh god we were a Mage. A Qunari mage. Who probably appeared suspiciously like he was possessed.

We were so incredibly fucked.

 

Kos let out what I could only describe as a roar as he charged the second Demon, staff already wreathed in flames. It felt pleasantly warm, a bit tingly as it seemed to flow through us out of top of the staff to impact with the Demon. It reared back, and Kos didn’t waste a second of that opportunity, cracking the Demon over the head with the staff, then the stomach, then fending a swipe off as he danced neatly away. I kept quiet, not making a single move. It was so fast paced, so close quarters that if anything went wrong the demon would have its claws in us before we could say “whoops” The melee was over in seconds, the demon reduced to a smoking pile of slightly goey ashes on the ground. Kos was efficient, and damn scary. It was actually pretty reassuring. Across the lake the Seeker finished her Demon off, and then rounded on us, face a mask of fury.

Ruh-roh.

"Drop your weapon!"

 _"Do it do it do it"_ I yelled frantically, not wanting to risk taking over the body to do it myself. Kos grunted, clearly unhappy at being defenceless again.

"Fine, have it your way" He ground out. I got the distinct sense he wasn't just directing that at the Seeker. Fine. Better him pissed off at me than a suspicious Seeker.

"How did you know the bridge would collapse?" She demanded, weapon still pointing resolutely at us. Uh oh. I'd gone off script. It was too much to hope for that the Seeker would forget about it. And at the worst possible time, i felt Kos freeze.

"I…uh" He stammered, trailing off and the Seekers gaze got stormier. I had to step in, or she'd turn us into Adaar Kebab, possible way to seal the Breach or not.

 _"I know what to say, please trust me, let me handle it_ " I pleaded with Kos, trying to appear more confident than i was. I took the reins of the body, putting my hand to my head. I felt Kos struggle, fighting back automatically. We wrestled, internally. It was a monumental struggle to keep the body still.

_"What, no! What are you doing?"_

_"Making sure we don't get shanked! I've got this. Unless you can think of a story or want to dictate mine to her"_

_"Agh. Fine"_

Kos acquiesced, stopped fighting back. I was in full control. Oh, years of theatre and improv don't fail me now.

I smoothed the hand on our head over my face, schooling my features to channel the confusion of our circumstances and how they troubled me, slumping slightly. I took the hand away and made sure to look Cassandra in the eye, to let her see the turmoil there.

"To be honest... I don't know how to explain it in words. I just Knew something bad was going to happen to the bridge, something involving the Breach. I don't know for sure, but it might have something to do with this?" I offered, raising the hand with the mark, palm facing towards my face. No need for her to think I was about to shoot magic at her.

The Seekers eyes narrowed, the sword didn't waver and her voice was pure steel.

"So, you didn't cause that, summon that projectile?"

"What? No, fuck no. At least, I sure hope not." I trailed off, looking wide eyed and clearly troubled, but trying to hide it with a nervous laugh, a weak attempt at humour. I didn't quite succeed. Good.

"I just felt something was wrong, and I acted without thinking. I apologise if it alarmed you" I replied, putting the full force of my assuredness that I definitely was not responsible for causing the collapse behind my words. That was the good thing about this, I wasn't lying, technically. Just manipulating the truth a bit.

"Are the soldiers okay?" I asked, sparing the Seeker from needing to acknowledge my apology. I was aiming for just the right balance between hopeful worry and professional interest, a tone befitting of a mercenary who was no stranger to loss but would still mourn it. Judging by the way the Seeker, if not softened, at least put her weapon away and turned her focus towards said soldiers, I had got it right. Kos was strangely silent in my head, but he wasn't attempting to take back the reins just yet. Hopefully that was a good sign.

The Seeker barked a question about injuries, and the soldiers shuffling around up top on the other side of the bridge answered that they were only minor, no casualties. I didn't need to feign the relief at knowing i'd probably saved their lives. I let my shoulders slump, relaxing just a bit, and breathed a heavy sigh. The Seeker eyed us for a moment more, before letting out a sigh of her own.

"Alright then. We will deal with that once the Breach is sealed. Tell me if it happens again.”

“I will” I moved to follow her. Any second now...

“Wait. I cannot protect you, and I cannot leave you defenceless" The Seeker had finally sheathed her sword, but kept her hand on the pommel. That was fine. I'd have thought her foolish if she didn't. I nodded my thanks, gaze solemn as I scooped up the staff.

And then, very deliberately, I ceded control of the body back to Kos. The sensation of the loss of control was sudden, overwhelming and truly unpleasant, and I had to fight the urge to immediately try and snatch it back. Kos shuddered, a full body affair, before adjusting his grip on our staff and following the Seeker.

 

 

Kos was the definition of hard to read. He seemed torn between horror and relief, but that was about all I could pick up from the way the body was reacting. I concurred. Although it wasn't my body, being in control was better by leagues than being an unwilling passenger. It probably felt far worse for Kos, considering it was actually his body being Jaegered by some unknown probably-a-demon. Again, that guilt I couldn't shake, even though I knew this wasn't my fault. Oh Gods, I really hoped this wasn't my fault.

_"Is that really how you knew the bridge was going to collapse? Because I didn't feel any of that"_

His voice was shaken, quiet even in the space of our head. I hesitated.

_"No. It was close enough. I really don't know how best to explain, but i will, i promise. Just, later"_

_"I'm beginning to hate that word"_

_"Yeah well, tough shit. I'll think of how to put it when we're not ass deep in demons"_

_"Fine. I will hold you to it. What happened to keeping a low profile and not risking alerting them to your presence?"_

_"It was worth it"_

_"How?"_

_"Several ways. One, we've shown Cassandra we have good instincts, that we're useful both during a fight and preventing one. Two, we've shown a desire to save lives by saving those soldiers. Three, we didn't take a tumble off the bridge and risk injuring ourselves, so we'll be stronger for the next fight. Yes, she might suspect us more now, but that will change once we get to the Temple of Sacred Ashes. There's proof it wasn't either of us that caused the explosion up there, we just have to get there in one piece"_

Kos tensed, grip on his staff shifting, face twisting into a frown.

_"You know something, about who did this"_

_"Yes"_

_"Were you involved?"_

_"No. And we're going to make those who were pay"_

If he was surprised by the fervour in my tone, he didn't show it.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, thanks for reading! Hopefully i'll have the next chapter up sometime soon, but i can't promise anything :P 
> 
> Please let me know if you enjoyed it, if you have any questions, or if you think i missed an important tag or something


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